Report: New Missouri Data Center Will Use Wells 1,500 Feet Down

If you were already concerned about how data centers will impact Missouri, then you should be aware that there are reports that a new facility will tap into water wells 1,500 beneath a town to help provide the resources needed to cool the technology above.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a certified nerd. I live and breathe on the bleeding edge of technology. I've built computers for more than three decades and use my tech skills every day for my careers, so don't think I don't appreciate new tools that help make our lives better. But, I am becoming more alarmed at new information I'm coming across about existing data centers and new ones being built in Missouri. Yahoo News reported a story shared by Jennifer Green of TCD detailing what the new data center for Amazon Web Services coming to New Florence, Missouri will be doing. It says "the campus could rely on wells drilled 1,500 feet underground and use about 50 million gallons of water per year".

How will the data center coming to New Florence, Missouri access the water well and is it safe?

The story references a report from an engineering firm. The target would be the deep Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer which would allegedly not interfere with shallower private water wells that access it. The assessment is the new data center would only add 0.03% usage to the current 8% total usage of that aquifer.

Why do data centers need so much water?

One thing computers generate a lot of is heat. The water is necessary to cool literally thousands of servers that are constantly processing data. There's also the issue of water being used to control the humidity in the rooms where the servers are kept. Just manufacturing the CPU chips for these data centers requires water. The question is at what point will it all be too much?

I don't like to draw conclusions when I don't have the full picture of what's going on, but I've heard concerns that the assessment of the aquifer has not been extensive enough to determine if the usage amounts are accurate when it's apparently only been tested in one area. The only thing I do know for sure is I get uncomfortable when basic necessities of life like natural water get interfered with.